Thorro Clean

Thorroclean Bore Cleaner.

Is this the best barrel?

Seven years ago, I started short-range benchrest again after many years absent from this sport. At the same time, I began to get some bad Eczema on my fingers which I am still battling.
Cleaning the barrels with solvent-type products was difficult though I used gloves. I always somehow ended up getting this stuff on my hands.
I have tried many types of cleaning products, and they all did the job, but all of them have some solvents, making them difficult for me to use.

Thorroclean.
When I bought my Bat Neuvo action from Bullet Central, I found out they had a barrel-cleaning product that promised to have no solvent. So I bought two Thorroclean sets to test.
Bullet Centralhttps://www.bulletcentral.com/brands/thorroclean/ recommend using an ISSO nylon brush to clean with, so I got a few of them as well.
Thorroflean is a two type of product, Thorroflush, and Thorroclean ) First, a patch of Thorroflush is pushed thru the barrel, then Thorrocelan is put on a nylon brush ( or a tight fitting patch ) to remove carbon and copper.
At first, I was skeptical and continued to use solvent-based products alongside Thorroclean.
Getting the Thorro clean on my hands gives me no problems, I can easily clean a barrel without cloves if I choose.

The Thorroclean bore-cleaner I bought first was on the thicker side. It was like yogurt, but it held up well in the nylon brush.

A friend of mine asked if I could give him some of this stuff to test on hunting rifles he regularly cleaned. He was satisfied and asked me to help him get this stuff too many of his shooting buddies. I was happy to help and ordered many units from BC.
The Thorroclean that came was now about 70% thinner, it was hard to get it to stay in the nylon brush.
I stopped using brushes and tried to use only patches. It turned out to be excellent and very promising.

It is best if the patches are a little tight on the jag.

When I was packing for the 8th European Benchrest Championship in France.

I decided only to take the Thorroclean Borecleaner and one small bottle of solvent-type cleaning products.
We shoot 100 and 200m LV and 100, 200, and 300 meters plus practice before the match. Overall I shot 480 shoots during these 8. days.

Shooting days

I cleaned like this, two patches of Thorroflush, One patch of Thorroclean. Brushed 10 to 15 times thru the bore, then flushed with Thorroflush and dry patches.
After the end of each shooting day, I pushed one patch with solvent thru the bore and let it stay that way until the next day.
The barrel I took with me had some 500 shoots on it when I left for the EBC8.

On the day we were shooting HV 200 meters, I asked one of the team members from the Belgian team to loan me a bore scope they had with them. I looked thru the bore and then asked the team member from Belgium to look and give me his opinion. He looked thru the bore and asked me if I had just put on a new barrel. It´s like a mirror, he said. At this point, the barrel had some 900 shoots thru it.

Every morning I pushed a dry patch thru the bore to see if I had any blue strikes. Each morning, nothing except one day, just a hint of blue.

My conclusion is that Thorroclean is an excellent barrel-cleaning one can get, it is possibly the best barrel-cleaning product out there, in my opinion.
Thorroflush and Thorroclean: Highly recommend if you have Eczema or not.

One thing worth mentioning. Shake the Thorroclean extra well, I mean extremely. I had to put a stainless steel nut inside to make this easy.

October 15, 2022/by Johannes Frank

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Photographing Iceland a must have book

Photographing Iceland a photo guide to 100 locations

by Einar Guðmann and Gyða Henningsdóttir

Photographing Iceland.

Coming to Iceland to photograph or just traveling?

The best advice I could give is to invest in a book called Photographing Iceland, a photo guide to 100 locations.

A great book for photographers, amateurs, or regular tourists who are looking for information about traveling in Iceland.

First half of the book is about how to travel in Iceland.

When is the best time to travel, what photographers have to be aware of for safety.

Method and technical ideas for taking photographs in each location and what gear to take and more.

Where to stay and how to set up the camera for the best shoot, ending with the code of ethics for photographs.

Second half is dedicated to locations, 100 locations, hence the subtitle

Photographers looking for short or long travel trips from Reykjavik or Akureyri will find some really good advice in this book.

Find locations quickly through the book or with the QR code supplied on each page in the second half of the book.

This is a great book for every photographer, amateur or professionals shooting looking to take great images in Iceland.

Regular tourists who are not here only to photograph will also have very good information from this book.

Having this book when I started taking photographs would have saved me a lot of time and money.

The book can be found in all major bookstores in Iceland.

Direct from the authors here.

https://www.ggart.is/collections/books/products/photographing-iceland-a-photo-guide-to-100-locations

August 16, 2021/by Johannes Frank

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Carbon skinning a McMillan Edge stock

Some years ago I bought a used McMillan Edge rifle stock. My intention at the time was to use it for my old Stolle Panda action. That did not happen as I sold that action in a stock I made from wood and skinned with Carbon fiber and Epoxy.

So when I bought a 2013 Anschutz BR 50 action (J.G. ANSCHÜTZ GmbH & Co. KG) from a friend I thought it might be possible to fit this action to the McMillan Edge stock.? I had already routed out the stock to be fitted for the Stolle Panda so it was not much I needed to remove, though the 2013-BR-50 action is a bit longer than the Panda.

The biggest problem was the rear of the BR-50 action, and the big trigger ( which is a great trigger by the way.) and I had to fill up some parts that were originally cut from the stock. I had to make a new slot for the bolt handle.

ANSCHÜTZ 2013 -BR-50 McMillan Edge
inlaying a ANSCHÜTZ 2013 -BR-50 McMillan Edge
ANSCHÜTZ 2013 -BR-50 McMillan Edge

A lot had to be cut from the stock to fit the trigger and I saw that I would have some problems with the trigger guard and the screws under the trigger. I had an old trigger guard from another McMillan stock. I could fit that guard with some modifications under the stock but I need to make a new one opening in the back of the guard.

Bedding.

For bedding I used Marintex and some car wax I had ( mistake) should have used shoe shine wax. This ANSCHÜTZ 2013 -BR-50 action is a little difficult to make good bedding on, it has many holes and slots which need to be filled prior to bedding. Using modelling clay I filled these holes but I needed to be sure that the clay would be flat to the surface on the action so it would not stick in the stock. A dark clay would probably have been better to see the small uneven surface of the clay visible after removing the action after bedding. I had some pillars made from aluminum and I screwed a plate under the stock to make the pillar rest on. This gave me the exact high I was looking for and the correct amount of bedding material under the action I was looking for.

Bedding material
ANSCHÜTZ 2013 -BR-50 McMillan Edge pillar bedding

Bedding an ANSCHÜTZ 2013 -BR-50 action is different from regular actions for two reasons, one is the holes and slots in the action, the other is the 4 screws holding the action. This makes the bedding a little difficult especially if one is not doing bedding on a regular basis as I´m not. My mistake in the bedding was not to put enough material where the reverse recoil lug is in the action. Result, not 100% contact for the lug and not so good looking bedding, but I will possibly need to re bed later on. Lets see how it shoots first?

I decided to make the stock a little more straight on the for end as it had some curve in it .

Skinning.

I have done skinning before but I knew skinning a Edge stock would be different because I would not have a corner to break the carbon on. and the pistol grip would be in a way a bit, I decided to start from the top and make the flat underneath last and make the connection on the front of the pistol grip.

The biggest mistake.

Cutting the carbon is best done by tape a line on the material bigger than you need and then use scissors to cut down the middle of the tape. I did that and marked on the tape where the middle of the tape would be.

With this method of skinning you mix a black epoxy and paint it on the stock and let it sit for 2 hours before you apply the carbon. I did exactly that and all looked good until I forgot to turn the tape towards me instead towards the stock, I wrapped the stock perfectly and it looked fine but then I saw that the tape was trapped between the stock and carbon, not good. I had to remove the carbon and by doing so it gets ruined and can not be used so I had to cut a new one and hoped enough epoxy would still remain on the stock to glue the second carbon. I tried this and it looked OK but I later found out that on 2 places on the stock there were some spots out of epoxy which turned out to be very difficult to fix. I should have just waited 24 hours and sand the black epoxy off and start again.

After 24 hours it is time to trim away the extra carbon and paint clear epoxy in 3 layers on top of each other and wait about 2 hours between layers. I found out that I had two bad holes in the carbon on both sides of the forend so I had to redo the skinning on the for-end.

Finish

I painted 3 layers of Miopa Lacquer on top of the epoxy.

November 28, 2020/by Johannes Frank

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Ilyich Steel

The People at Ilyich Steel Factory in Mariupol Ukraine

Here are some photographs I shoot with my wife Mayya Pigida inside the Ilyich Steel Factory in Mariupol Ukraine. This images where shoot in summer 2016

All images are shot in color and converted to black and white.

The steel workers in this work in a very harsh condition

An old man said to me that these workers are heroes for working in these factories under these conditions.

So here are the images I promised to publish some years ago.

January 9, 2020/by Johannes Frank

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IBWPA member

Today I became a member in the IBWPA

About IBWPA

Who We Are

We are the first and only International Association for Photographers specializing in the art of Black and White photography.
Nikon proudly supports IBWPA.

Who We Serve

Enthusiast and Professional Photographers worldwide who shoot partly or mostly in black and white. Since 1999, IBWPA has united hundreds of photographers from 137 Countries.